A 12-MEMBER jury yesterday found Balram Singh guilty of the murder of taxi driver Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo and will spend the next 80 years behind bars. While handing down the sentence in a packed courtroom, Justice Navindra Singh told Balram Singh that it was an extremely heinous crime and in his unsworn statement to the court he even called an Assistant Commissioner of Police a liar.

The judge asked him what he had to say.
Balram Singh in response told the High Court, “I didn’t murder anybody, sir.”
Justice Singh started at a base of 60 years and added 10 years for felony and another 10 years for premeditation.
Before arriving at the verdict, the 12-member jury had asked for further directions. And when it was announced, relatives of Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo exhaled in relief and those related to Balram Singh looked at each other in disbelief.
It was after 15:30 hrs when the jury returned with the guilty verdict after which Defence Counsel Jermaine Jervis told the court that his client had no prior offences and while imprisoned he had reformed.
He asked for leniency for Singh explaining that his client was a father of two sons and his family had suffered since his incarceration.
Meanwhile, State Prosecutor Narissa Leander told the court that while Balram Singh’s relatives would be able to see him again in prison, the family members and relatives of the deceased would never be able to see him again.
She added that he too was a father of children and his family had endured enough and asked the court to deliver the maximum sentence.
As Balram Singh was led out of the court room to jail his face bore no expression, but he kept his head slightly bowed while glancing at his relatives.
The relatives of Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo said they were satisfied with the sentence. One sister-in-law added that it was like a life sentence for him where he would be unable to get out of jail to do anybody anything for a long time.
They cried as they described Sukhdeo as a wonderful father and a likable person who did not deserve to meet such a cruel end at the hands of a murderer.
During the trial Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh testified that the cause of death was due to the advanced state of decomposition and the fact that the body was burnt beyond recognition.
He said samples were taken from the body for DNA analysis and the body was identified by the father-in-law of the deceased.
The State was represented by Narissa Leander in association with Teshanna James-Lake while the defence lawyers were Jermaine Jervis and Clevaun Humphrey.
In her opening statement at the commencement of the trial Leander told the court that the deceased was a taxi driver who was last seen alive on January 19, 2010 after which a search was launched for him and his car.
She added that on January 27, 2010 the car was found at a bodywork shop in Herstelling New Scheme, East Bank Demerara and later the badly burnt body of Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo was discovered at Mocha Arcadia Access Road, also East Bank Demerara.
Photos saved in a file in Graphics Reporters as Balram Singh and Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo.

By Michel Outridge